You & sdurani are in ideal locations to go If you do go, please post about your experiences.

For anyone attending this listening event, as you are among the first to listen to these speakers outside of Pioneer, can you please also give us your first reaction to listening to STEREO MUSIC on these?

I am talking about bipole designs in surrounds which create a deliberately messy and poor sound stage for the purpose of ambience. I don't mean all bipoles, and I have no doubt that Linkwitz would sound very good.

Tom Norton of Sound & Vision attended an Atmos demo "at a Pioneer facility near Long Beach, CA," and had this to say:

"The demo, using Atmos trailers and the first few minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness (all, of course, mastered in Dolby Atmos) was very effective. Sounds came from all around us (well, not the floor—that’s apparently, as yet, an undiscovered country). If I have to make a criticism, it would be that when the going got crushingly complex, as it did in the Trek piece, the busy mix began to sound congested, which could have had any number of causes—the room, the speakers, the mix itself, the high playback level, or some combination of these.

Later we had a chance to listen briefly to just the speakers themselves in two-channel stereo with no sub. I found the smaller stand-mounts more open-sounding, if less extended than the floor-standers. If I don’t wax eloquently about how they sounded, it’s only because I’ve been spoiled by hearing innumerable speakers designed with fewer (or no) price constraints, including TAD models running into six figures. (TAD is Pioneer’s high-end brand, and the new Pioneer Elite Atmos-enabled models sounded as good as they did largely because designer Andrew Jones also designed those TAD speakers. He knows what to listen for, even if at less than 5% of the price of the cheapest TADs he can’t quite equal them. But the affordable Elites will certainly make a lot of budget conscious audio fans happy.)"

Tom Norton of Sound & Vision attended an Atmos demo "at a Pioneer facility near Long Beach, CA," and had this to say:

[/INDENT]

Later we had a chance to listen briefly to just the speakers themselves in two-channel stereo with no sub. I found the smaller stand-mounts more open-sounding, if less extended than the floor-standers. If I don’t wax eloquently about how they sounded, it’s only because I’ve been spoiled by hearing innumerable speakers designed with fewer (or no) price constraints, including TAD models running into six figures. (TAD is Pioneer’s high-end brand, and the new Pioneer Elite Atmos-enabled models sounded as good as they did largely because designer Andrew Jones also designed those TAD speakers. He knows what to listen for, even if at less than 5% of the price of the cheapest TADs he can’t quite equal them. But the affordable Elites will certainly make a lot of budget conscious audio fans happy.)"

This review of these speakers in a two-channels stereo setting interests me more than their Atmos abilities. From your relatively quick listening session, how do you think they will compare for MUSIC compared to other $1,400-$1,500 per pair speakers, towers and bookshelfs (including KEF LS-50's)?

This review of these speakers in a two-channels stereo setting interests me more than their Atmos abilities. From your relatively quick listening session, how do you think they will compare for MUSIC compared to other $1,400-$1,500 per pair speakers, towers and bookshelfs (including KEF LS-50's)?

Um, I was just offering a link to Mr. Norton's post at S & V. You can ask him yourself in the comments section below the post; there are a couple of comments there, already.

I'd be very interested in these speakers, less for their Atmos capabilities and more-so as an affordable premium series of speakers from Andrew Jones. I'll be keeping an eye on reviews regarding their normal 5.1 and 2.1 performance.

I'd be very interested in these speakers, less for their Atmos capabilities and more-so as an affordable premium series of speakers from Andrew Jones. I'll be keeping an eye on reviews regarding their normal 5.1 and 2.1 performance.